Passed Down

Last night we went to parent teacher conferences.
ALL of Daya's teachers LOVE her, and I consistently heard how amazing and fabulous she is.

I was talking to her ELA teacher-- they are starting to read To Kill a Mockingbird.
I read that in 8th grade, too.  Ms. Vereb said Daya might want to have her own copy so she could write in it.  So I said I still have my copy from 8th grade, and it probably has my notes in it.

Daya was SO EXCITED.
Not because I was giving her my book from 8th grade, but she had this idea that since my notes were already in it, she wouldn't have to do anything. I told her don't count on that.

Well, I did find my old copy and there isn't a single note or underlined word in it.
Daya was less than thrilled.

Monday

I have so many posts to catch up on.
Literally since September, I still need to put pictures from the medieval faire in September on here.
There are lots of posts I have draft-marked but haven't put together, lots of things I want to track here but I can't make myself do it.

Anyhow.

I was on vacation last week and Ellen came to visit NYC and it was Thanksgiving and Daya had Laguardia audition and callback and a birthday. Oh, and i need to put 2 paintings and Sid's visit here too.

More on all that later.

Anyhow I'm back from vacation and I'm still in a bad weird funk. And I'm glad to be back to work from vacation.

I couldn't get myself to do anything- not even paint- over vacay. Maybe the holidays are getting to me, my neighbors upstairs are still blasting and I'm messed up and trying not to be messed up from it (last night was really bad, I'm so upset), maybe I am stuck in my life being in the same job, same place, same everything and same nothing for so long.  But I don't want to move and I don't want to change jobs because they are both good situations..... I'm in a bad rut of same-old.  Same old for so many years and my life feels stale.  I need new energy, new people, and that is so difficult to find right now because of schedules and everyone's life is full.

So I rearranged my furniture and I hated it so I moved it back for the most part and it is a little different and ok, I guess.

I don't feel like doing anything.  I haven't felt like doing anything for a while.
Being at work is actually a relief.

****
Over the last couple of weeks I have been thinking to work more with Buddhism.
I love Buddhist teachings and practices, and truly I think the basic practices are some of the most direct systems that actually work to really, truly deal with our minds and life with practical teachings/applications. And it is compatible with pretty much everything. Not in a religious way, but in a back-to-basics way.

So I have been incorporating that a bit, and I think I need to expand my focus on it.

Buddhism teachings would say my awful upstairs neighbors are my great teachers and I should thank them for being awful so I can learn patience, learn, and strengthen my practice.

This is very difficult.  :/

There are some Buddhist centers here in the city and I am going to see what I can find.
I have been looking but it is a little hard right now because of conflict with Daya's dance schedule because I do have to pick her up in the evenings.  But I'll keep looking.

Next year, especially if she goes to high school for dance, my schedule will open up considerably.
But the Buddhist community here is something I think I need to explore.  I need some help that Buddhist practice can assist with, and it might also be a good place to meet high-quality people.

Here is a nice video I found today.

Ellen Visit

Ellen came to visit NYC.
I met Ellen in a pregnancy chatroom in 2005 and we stayed in touch.
In March 2008 she and her daughter came to visit us.

Ten years later she came back to NYC for Thanksgiving and we met up again.  It was a lovely time.  Our girls got so big!  Her girls do competitive cheer leading and are flexibendy and flippy like Daya.

Teenager

I now have my very own Personal Teenager.
Daya told me that she will be a very good teenager.

Plein Air of Plein Air

I'm just going to copy/paste what I wrote about this painting on wetcanvas so I don't have to re-do it!

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My friend and fellow painter Danielle Hatherley is in town for a few weeks. While she is here, she's teaching plein air workshops. Danielle invited me to join the group today even though she knew I would be doing my own thing and not really doing the workshop curriculum.

We were over near Gapstow Bridge-- and there were thousands and thousands of people from all over NYC, the US, and the world all looking for the mandarin duck which has been sighted here. That duck wanted nothing to do with anyone lol!

The fall foliage was perfect, and it was cold but that's ok.

i decided the perfect scene was painting some of the workshop participants. This was an extremely challenging painting for many reasons, one of which being my view was constantly blocked. And also working with the scale of everything.

Lots of passersby wanted to take "clever" photos of them taking a picture of me painting painters. Everyone was really, really awesome.

If you are ever feeling a bit down artistically, I highly recommend going to the most populated place in Central Park and painting. it's really amazing energy, there is nothing like it. People are amazing.

This is an 11x14 and took somewhere between 4 1/2 to 5 hours.

My large setup:

Plein Air with Sid

Sid came to visit me and we painted Bethesda Fountain.
We finished our paintings in about 2 1/2 hours. They are both 8x10 oil.

I had an idea to bring my Atrament Black, which has been in my studio for years, unused.  It is my new plein air BFF.

Pas de chat

I discovered Daya practicing in her pointe shoes while holding the cat.
So I told her she was doing pas de chat.  She got a "look" that clearly said "Um NO what the heck..." then her face changed when she got it.

Although Daya refused to laugh, she did admit I made a very good joke.

(Pas de chat is a ballet move that means cat-step. )